10,000 Lakes Chapter of ICC

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My name is Ryan Smith. I graduated from North Hennepin community college in 2013 with a degree in building inspection technology. I am certified as a building official. Over the last 2 years I have applied for every single code enforcement position in every corner of the state and as a result I have only landed 4 interviews. Most often I am told that I am not being considered due to my lack of experience in code enforcement. I can understand that, however, how do I get experience is nobody is willing to give it? I have been networking like crazy, I have obtained letters of recommendation from all kinds of people including a former senator, and still this has been an extremely difficult process. I have offered to volunteer and take unpaid internships with little success.

I have come here to seek advice from those of you whom are currently working for a municipality in code enforcement and to see if there is some chance one of you would be open to a job shadow, paid or unpaid internship, or volunteer opportunity that I could add to my resume.

Ryan, Do you have any construction experience? That may be the reason you're not getting many interviews. Also with the downturn in the economy a lot of departments had to let people go, I lost my inspector in 2010 and I might be able to get a replacement this year.